Colorado eyes edibles rules

By KRISTEN WYATT
the Associated Press

Published: April 30, 2014;Last modified: April 30, 2014 10:44PM

DENVER — Colorado’s marijuana experiment is threatened by the popularity of eating it instead of smoking it, leading the pot industry to join health officials and state regulators to try to curb the problem of consumers ingesting too much weed.

A task force that’s meeting Wednesday planned to start work on refining Colorado’s rules on edibles, the industry term for marijuana that has been concentrated and infused into food or drink.

“Basically, we are trying to figure out how to come up with a reasonable THC concentration or amount in edibles in proportion to product safety size,” said Dr. George Sam Wang of Children’s Hospital Colorado, a pediatric emergency physician who has treated children and toddlers who fell ill after eating marijuana.

Marijuana-infused foods are booming in the state’s new recreational market.

Some choose edible pot because of health concerns about smoking the drug. Others are visitors who can’t find a hotel that allows toking and are stymied by a law barring public outdoor pot smoking. Whether through inexperience or confusion, many are eating too much pot too quickly, with potentially deadly consequences.

A college student from Wyoming jumped to his death from a Denver hotel balcony last month after consuming six times the recommended dosage of a marijuana-infused cookie. And earlier this month, a Denver man accused of shooting his wife reportedly ate pot-laced candy before the attack, though police say he may have had other drugs in his system.